There is a joke
doing its rounds of late that is very related to the movie in question.
If you pick up a
fight with the Americans then they will wage a “War on Terror” against
you. If you pick a fight with the
Israelis then they will annihilate you bit by bit. If you pick up a fight with the Indians then
they stop playing cricket with you.
Said in jest but
says a lot. How else can one explain the
commitment that a country had, to spend nearly a decade and billions of dollars
to find and kill the one man who had spread terror in their lives on the
morning of the 11th September 2001.
And if that was not enough, the fight continues even today.
Considering
Kathryn Bigelow and her love for all things that are related to American wars in
the past few years, it was only obvious that she picked up the plot of what is
arguably the biggest man hunt in the history of the world and turned it into a
movie. While there is another movie on the same subject – Code Name : Geronimo,
I am quite certain that it will not be able to hold a candle to ZDT.
ZDT is characterized
by the signature Kathryn Bigelow style of cinematography. The one that she successfully executed with
Hurt Locker a couple of years back. There
is that sepia”ish” tinge to the entire movie.
It helps give a feeling of a movie that is firmly entrenched to the
ground and is depicting reality as well as one possibly can.
Leading the cast
this time around is one of my favourite actresses – Jessica Chastain who has
been nominated for her performance as an actress in a lead role. But I am not quite sure if she will get the
award this time. I am told Jennifer
Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) has come up with a stupendous
performance. Either ways, I don’t think
this was Chastain’s best performance to date.
It was rock solid. But not her
best.
The storyline is
quite simple really. It is the decade
long search for UBL as he has been code named.
It is led by Maya (Chastain) who has made it her life. And she goes through loads of resistance at
the agency to get herself heard. Probably
because she acts more with gut that with absolute concrete evidence. Just that her gut turns out to be right more
often than not.
The movie is
very dialogue intensive. But justifiably
so. How else can one communicate the
complexities involved in the manhunt? Mark Boal does a fabulous job as always
in this – his 3rd movie and 2nd nomination. Will it culminate in yet another gold statuette
remains to be seen. But be wary of the
intensity of the movie. You will need to
focus on every dialogue to understand it completely. Excellent watch for certain. 7.5 on 10.
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